Another highlight of the second session was Paolo Knill’s 80th birthday celebration. Many guests including Shaun McNiff and Stan Strickland (jazz musician from Boston who is an expressive arts therapist) arrived to help with the festivities.

Elizabeth McKim

Every year, Steve and Ellen write, direct and perform in an original clown show which takes place after the graduation ceremony. The following was written by Steve to describe this year’s show:

Some of the inspiration for the show came from digital media and expressive arts courses at EGS and some from current political events, as you'll see below. The show was great fun. It started with the usual scenario: Max and Sadie (played by Steve and Ellen) arrive in Saas Fee to see their grandaughter Natalie (it used to be to see their daughter, but, as they say, times change). Max reminiscences about the old days, and he and Sadie start quarreling about things she wants to change that he wants to stay the same. He likes things in order - like in Russia, where they know how to have a strong leader - "Look!" A video projection on the large screen shows a clip below about Putin at a celebrity dinner playing the piano and singing "Blueberry Hill" (if you can believe it - totally ridiculous). Natalie says she has her own icon, and wants to change her name to hers: Nadezhda! At that point we showed a clip below from Pussy Riot's unauthorized and blasphemous anti-Putin performance in an Orthodox church in Moscow. For this, they have been charged are are in jail for the next year and a half.

Max is horrified, while Sadie loves them - so they start fighting again - until Nadezhda insists that they go to see a therapist - Dr. Putino! At this point we Skyped in one of our old clown buddies, Bruno Mock, who appeared on the large screen and lead us through three forms of therapy, each more catastrophic than the last: SOS (Solution-Oriented Solution), DDT (Dynamic Dance Therapy) and finally PLR (Past Life Regression). In the last one, Max and Sadie go back to three past lives in sequence, each of which ends in disaster: Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, Abraham and Sarah, and finally a Neanderthal couple who can only grunt and chase each other around the stage. When Nadezhda finally wakes them up from their trance, Max admits that maybe the old days aren't as great as he thought. They all agree that it's time for a new sound. We then play the audio from the Anti Flag video "This is the New Sound," to which the performers and the audience all dance. Though we didn't play it, it's worth watching the video - did you ever think you'd see punk rockers being tortured by Muppets?

Not sure if the poster is appropriate. You know, right, that this is quite a deal in Russia? Political repressions are still a thing in that country. Just as sexism and misogyny. It's really hard to be a woman there. And even harder - to be a political active women. It's bad to mock them in such way.